so far the only inkjet that i have seen with the near the tonal range for B/W has been the epson 2200($700). it was designed to have a larger range in the B/W print with 2 levels of black(light/dark) in addition to the other 5 colors for a total of 7 colors. most others fall well short of this. also the prints on others tend towards the greenish.

Also I just printed a couple of prints for ya out of the 825. This one apears to be in need of a printhead alignment. But still the transition using the black and white filter on the printer did a very good job. http://home.attbi.com/~agregerson/ws...2/site1020.JPG

> The canon i850 is not to be used as a black and white photo printer.&lt;

Is this your opinion or did you read some place the i850 specifically is not to be used to print B&amp;W photos?

Maybe its in the i850 manual? Or on the Canon web site?

For a printer thats not to be used for B&amp;W, the i850 sure does a heck of a job on it.

Now I'm not saying that if Ansel Adams were alive to day, he'd love the i850 and use it exclusively to print his B&amp;W photos. I'm just saying it does a pretty good job printing my B&amp;W photos, and anyone thinking of buying this printer should check it out for him or herself.

> This printer does'nt even use black when doing them. &lt;

Then I guess you REALLY have to hand it to Canon on doing such a GREAT job of the i850.

It doesn't really matter to me if the i850 uses black ink or not for photos. The black in my photos, both B&amp;W and color is as black as I need it to be. And thats pretty darn BLACK!

And I guess thats the bottom line isn't it, as long as the black is black and not orange or purple, or green, it doesn't really matter :-)